Research projects

Below is a short overview of the research projects that the Chair of Philosophy of Science is involved with – these topics are opportunities to offer students hands-on research experience and supervision:

Disagreements. We study the nature of scientific concepts through the processes of historical change. Also, in the same project, we investigate the concept of well-organised science, the ideas about how disagreements can be fruitful for scientific progress. We have proposed an empirical project for the study of disciplinary stereotypes and prejudices which prevent researchers from collaboration in interdisciplinary research.

Materiality. We participate in the COST project 'New Materialism: Networking European Scholarship on How Matter Comes to Matter' which joins over twenty European research teams working on the role of the material conditions for knowledge production.

Practical realism. We develop ideas of the account of science Professor Rein Vihalemm has suggested as an alternative to traditional metaphysical realism, social constructivism and internal realism. Practical realism provides a philosopher the opportunity to take historical and cultural contexts of knowledge production seriously in the philosophical analysis. A series of case studies is being carried out in history of science and contemporary scientific practice.